Managing Major Life Changes: How to Get the Support You Need
When a major change happens, your life can feel foreign and disorienting.
Perhaps you lost a job you loved, a tragedy is invading your world, or you feel overwhelmed by the demands of caregiving for a parent.
With change often comes a sense of loss and a measure of uncertainty. This can be scary and tough to navigate emotionally.
Even positive life changes can be a challenge. Did you earn the promotion you slaved for, marry your dream mate, or recently bring home a new baby?
Change might mean letting go of a comfortable and secure past for an uncertain future with a real possibility of disappointments or failure.
So, what should our response be when we feel our lives are suddenly untested and unfamiliar? How can we go on without falling apart or coping in ways that damage our lives and relationships?
First, take a moment to step back and breathe. Then, realize that second-guessing yourself amid major life changes isn't uncommon. Doubting your chances of survival or success are normal under such stress.
What makes major life change tolerable or even a launch pad for meaningful turning points in your life? Safe, solid, support systems.
Why Support Matters
Change can skew your perspective. Without context, grounding forces, and comfort, you may succumb negatively to grief, victimhood, or mood disorders like depression or anxiety.
Support from nonjudgmental, responsive people can help keep rumination and racing thoughts in check.
The opportunity to share your feelings is the opportunity to process them completely and purposefully. Also, discussion with someone outside your own head helps you challenge unproductive thought patterns.
In addition, support interrupts anything that might be unhelpful for your healing and ability to adapt.
Where to Look for Support
Support comes in many forms during transitions. To deal with setbacks, low motivation, and self-criticism, you’ll do well to find support from trustworthy and knowledgeable sources.
You may want to start sharing your upset or apprehension with loved ones or clergy. The key is that these sources of support are reliable and feel safe to you.
Additionally, you may consider the help of a local or online support group. Often, working through the daily challenges and nuances of change with others is soothing and encouraging. A sense of belonging is an important part of staying positive and boosting your motivation.
Lastly, support through professional counseling can be extremely helpful too. Many seek therapy only after reaching a high degree of discomfort or suffering. But why punish yourself by delaying support?
There is no shame in seeking a trained, compassionate therapist who can help you do the following:
Explore thought patterns that impact your emotions
Come up with solutions to change-related problems
Challenge thoughts and behaviors that keep you stuck
Cope with past emotional pain
Determine your goals
Build self-confidence and resilience
All in all, support comes through safe relationships you can trust to be there when you need them.
Tips to Secure Support Quickly
Support from the people you choose will come more easily if you do the following from your end:
Put stigma aside. Seeking help is nothing to be ashamed of.
Assert your right to support. You deserve to feel better and live well.
Decide to be open-minded and vulnerable. Allow yourself to improve your life through the help and perspectives of others.
Be honest and committed to your own mental health. Recognize that being honest and clear about your struggles is much more beneficial than burying or ignoring them.
Finally…
Managing major life changes is a significant part of remaining resilient and forward-moving. Allowing yourself support from someone trusted, reliable and capable is often the lifeline you need to foster acceptance of your new normal.
I’m here to help. Please call me for a consultation and to learn how to fully process challenging situations that come with life transitions.
